The garb of neo-secularism is a devious decoy, a sheepskin that camouflages wolves of the most dangerous kind. Real secularism lies imprisoned in the depths of the average Indian’s heart, like the doddering old king in vintage tamil MGR starrers who is kept in underground captivity by a villainous diwan even as an imposter takes his place. The script ends with His Majesty’s rescue after the bad guys are felled, but the king is by that time too weak to even rise.
The fake secularists who stalk the land now too will perish in their own bogeys but not before they had left a trail of blood and social destruction, and of course a secularism, the original, that can barely breathe.
Indeed, more than communalism it is bogus secularism that is dangerous for the country because, the former afflicts only the religious zealots who are still a minority, but the latter destroys the immunity system of even the moderates, the gullible and the guileless, who all form the mainstream!
Secularism is a red-herring conceived by Communist minds, true to their hue, but religiously adopted by the Congress in its bid to prove itself more Marxian than the Marxists. For the reds it still remains a natural tenet of their ideology which swears by atheism or at least, agnosticism, but in its political manifestation secularism has been a matter of expediency.
A sure blot on the red landscape was when they backed the V.P.Singh regime with full knowledge of the fact that it was also supported by the so- called communal BJP. The Communists ‘ dalliance with the Sangh and Singh then was out of their eagerness to keep the ‘ secular ‘ Congress out of power, but it was opportunism all the same. Was Ayodhya on the BJP ‘ s backburner at that time?
The Communists at large may reel under a bout of collective amnesia, but at least the vociferous Somnath Chatterjee, who is now at his secular best, would remember that Advani ‘ s famed rath yathra of those heady days, began at, well, Somnath, when the BJP and the reds, were joint sponsors of the disastrous ‘ weepy ‘ Singh and his suicidal dispensation. The tottering regime fell not because the Communists objected to the rath yatra, but owing to the withdrawal of support by the BJP. Otherwise, the reds would have blissfully continued their backing, leaving secularism to fend for itself.
Congress secularism has always been suspect, even theoretically, and much worse in all its manifestations. For the Congress, secularism has ever been an attire of convenience, like winter clothing whenever the party is out in the cold and shed promply during springtime. It did a sinister strip-tease in the aftermath of Indira ‘ s assassination when the party ‘ s thugs unleashed the first pogrom in independent India ‘ s history on the Sikh community.
Again, secularism took an ugly turn when the Congress donned the mullah mask to push through a regressive constitutional amendment in indecent haste, a move that cocked a legal snook at the Supreme Court, the same Supreme Court that the Congress now deems as sacred and above everything else. Even on the Ayodhya issue the party has never been consistent, dilly dallying between Shilanyas and secularism, depending on prevalent political pressures. In fact, most of the decisive developments on the issue have happened during Congress regimes with the party ‘ s tacit connivance, and its past sins of commissions – no, not Bofors – and omissions continue to haunt everyone, barring of course, the very forgetful Signora Sonia who seems to think that the country was born only in 1998 when she threw her Italian hat into the Indian political ring.
The BJP outraged its own modesty when it courted this illusory damsel of a pseudo-secularism in its old age after having shunned it throughout its prime. The damsel was only a prop to begin with, but with the pleasures of power unfolding, it is now a bewitching mistress that will not let go so easily. For the allies who lured the BJP into this dicey trap, secularism is just a well set-up seductress to entice their primary partner and keep it pinned down. The withdrawal of their plant is the scare that they use and to great effect, whenever the BJP develops pangs for its first love, namely Hindutva.
For the Karunanidhis, Naidus and Mamatas, it is imperative that the BJP remains in a state of stupor while they silently make hay even in darkness. Mark my words, these allies will never pull the rug on the issue of secularism till either the BJP becomes too weak to be useful or if elections are round the corner. And it may be too late for a limp BJP, shorn of its chastity, to salvage its original matrimony as its unforgiving first love would have then walked out into more secure arms.
The allies of course would continue to carry the secular palanquin with its precious vamp inside and pimp around with whoever seeks the pleasures of power in the next hung house. Since 1996 there have been three elections and as many governments, all diametrically opposite in purported ideologies, but some secular faces are permanant fixtures, whatever the dispensation. Could there be a greater proof of political prostitution?
Thus goes the parade of pompous protagonists of neo-secularism, a principle in which these practitioners themselves have not an iota of faith. But still they all have the gumption to peddle this spurious stuff, patented exclusively by them, as the sole panacea for the country’s ills.
The vast majority who have consumed this heady substance all along now find themselves defenceless against the real virus of virulent religiosity that has always been lurking behind the facade, occasionally raring its head, but ever careful to keep within the secular limits. Make no mistake, when the purdah slips what we will behold is not sane secularism that will bring solace to multitudes but radical religionism, the same one that has laid waste the entire West Asia and now threatens humanity, world over.
The peddlers would have vanished by then, having pushed their wares on unsuspecting denizens. But the virus will linger and prosper in all its perilous glory. It is potent and programmed to kill. For those who still doubt its potential for destruction, kindly check out the unmistakable ISI mark for authenticity. This virus is no fake unlike our secularism..